RUSH: You know, I just listened to a little bit of Obama at his press conference, and it is obvious that you didn’t get scared enough over what the Republicans are trying to do with the shutdown and Obamacare. So now he’s really piling it on in this thing, and it is so over the top. And, folks, what he said is just not true. I mean, from start to finish, what he said about the debt limit is not true. The Republicans have got to come out when this is over, somebody has to go to a microphone and correct this ASAP.
He’s using words like “nuclear bomb,” “hold hostage.” He said, “The American people don’t get to demand a ransom when they have to pay their mortgage.” The American people also don’t get to pay their mortgage by raising their debt limit and going to the Fed, Mr. President, and having them print money for it.
I’m asking myself if we have ever had, as I listen to it, and I’m not exaggerating, I’m asking, in my lifetime, have we ever had a more dishonest president? I mean, with all due respect, what he just said about the debt limit is… Well, I don’t know how to characterize it. It was dead wrong. This is a man who voted twice against raising the debt ceiling when he was a senator. He did it once in March of 2006 and again in September of 2007. So it obviously can’t be a crime against humanity. Now, what he said was that — and he reiterated it. He said (paraphrasing), “Just because we raise the debt limit doesn’t mean we’re gonna go into more debt. The Republicans want you to believe that that’s what we’re gonna do.” And he said, “If we don’t raise the debt limit, we will not be able to pay our bills.” And Warren Buffett has called that a nuclear bomb, and he quoted a couple of other people.
I’m telling you, don’t take my word for it. He’s lying. Or let me say it a different way. He’s wrong. That is so incorrect. We will not default with the debt limit where it is. It’s not even possible, folks. Every month the federal government collects income and other tax revenue, and the amount of revenue that the government collects every month is much more than is needed to pay our bills, and paying our bills is essentially paying the interest on the debt. That’s it. And we have the money to do that, whether the debt limit changes or not, and he is just making it up when he tells people otherwise.
This was really bad. It was really, really bad. And here’s a guy who voted twice against raising the debt limit when he was a senator, 2006 and 2007. And he did it to try to shut down the war in Iraq, in one instance. I forget what the other reason was. In both instances he called Bush all kinds of names. He called him irresponsible and any other number of things for wanting to raise the debt limit. This is not how you run a government, he said. This is irresponsible.
The only way we will default, regardless what the debt limit is, is if Obama refuses to follow the law, which, I hate to say, could be possible. That could happen. Because the Obamacare law that we have now is not the law that he signed. He’s already made random changes in it, all these waivers and the delay of the employer mandate, he just took it upon himself to do it. The law did not provide for that. He just did it. But I can’t tell you how bad this is. It’s beyond my ability without raising my voice and shouting.
He’s calling what the Republicans are doing extortion. He said we can’t make extortion extreme. There is no extortion going on here. I think it’s clear you’re not scared enough, and so he’s out there trying to really scare you. The end of your country could just happen on October 17th if you don’t let him get rid of the Republicans. This is really outrageous, what he said.
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RUSH: I watched a little bit more of President Obama. Here’s guy who is trying to make it sound like he’ll negotiate, and yet he’s accusing the Republicans of ransoms and hostage taking and all of this. But it really is egregious. He is continuing to tell these whoppers about the debt limit not leading to more debt and about default.
Let me give you the numbers. Our average monthly cost to service the national debt is $18 billion. That’s what we have to come up with every month to pay the interest on the debt, and that is essentially paying our bills. We take in an average of $225 billion a month. And by law — it is law, although that matters less and less to this administration — by law, the president must pay interest on the debt before anything else, by law. We’re not even close to not having the money for it, whether we raise the debt limit or not. We’re taking in $225 billion. Thomas Sowell wrote about this recently. Everybody knows this.
He’s getting away with entirely totally mischaracterizing this and mischaracterizing the Republicans. I’m gonna tell you, this is a panic press conference. He is doing this presser because the Democrats are losing in poll after poll on who is the problem when it comes to negotiating. Listen to a little sound bite. This is not Obama talking about the debt limit per se, but just listen to the lingo here as he attempts to equate what the Republicans are trying to make him do with the way you live your life.
OBAMA: The American people do not get to demand a ransom for doing their jobs. You don’t get a chance to call your bank and say, “I’m not gonna pay my mortgage this month unless you throw in a new car and an Xbox.” If you’re in negotiations around buying somebody’s house, you don’t get to say, “Well, let’s talk about the price I’m gonna pay, and if you don’t give me the price then I’m gonna burn down your house.” That’s not how negotiations work. In the same way, members of Congress and the House Republicans in particular, don’t get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs.
RUSH: Folks, who would want to talk to a megalomaniac like this? By the way, who does he think his audience is? You don’t get to call a bank and say, “I’m not paying the mortgage unless you throw in an Xbox”? He clearly is aiming at the low-information voter out there. And, “I’m not gonna buy your house unless you agree to the price I’m gonna pay, and if you don’t give me the price, I’m gonna burn down your house”? If anybody’s burning down the house right now, it’s Barack Obama, folks. And what the Republicans are doing is trying to put out the fire. But this whole thing of his today is so beneath the office of president of the United States. This is embarrassing.
Nobody in the past has ever seriously threatened to breach debt ceiling until the last two years. That’s another lie. This kind of thing has been going on since Eisenhower. Robert Byrd tried to stop Eisenhower from doing his highway project, the Interstate Highway System. Byrd tried to stop that with a debt limit game.
This is infuriating but pretty sad, too, folks. I just have to tell you, this is really backyard bully kind of taunting that is happening here. The Republicans need to go out and really straighten out the record on this whole concept of default, ’cause he’s trying to make everybody believe the Republicans don’t want us to pay our bills. And it’s not a factor.
Here’s David in Detroit. David, I’m glad you called. I appreciate it. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, a pleasure, and you are a great patriot. Thank you.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
CALLER: Yes, sir. When does the condescension stop? I mean, this guy continues to talk down to people like — I’ve never heard any other president, and I’m 54 years old this coming month, I don’t get it. When does it stop? At what point do the Americans say, “Enough is enough”? And I know we have some patriots out there, but it’s really disgusting.
RUSH: Well, I agree. I don’t know that the American people, that this group of Americans, are gonna react that way, although he is being really condescending to ’em. This whole press conference today is really an indication of just the contempt he holds people in. He is really ticked off that he has to even deal with opposition here. That’s what really bugs him. He thinks anybody opposed — this is just insolence. He ought not have to waste any time. He is so mad, almost like a spoiled rotten elitist that’s gotten his way all through life and has to deal with some adversity and doesn’t like it and doesn’t want to and doesn’t know how.
But I mean, comparing what’s happening here with people paying their mortgage. Does he not know what he’s done to the value of people’s homes? Folks, I’m kinda stuck here. I don’t know how to characterize this any better than I have. I mean, I’m really spitting shouting mad, and I’m trying to contain myself. But this whole press conference is the equivalent of 1-800-FU. This whole press conference is the president of the United States flipping the country the bird, is what this is. And you’re asking about the media. The media is just sitting there soaking it all up. They don’t know quite what to do. He’s their guy and whatever they have to do to protect him. Don’t expect anything there. That’s why there’s gotta be some retort to this from the Republican Party. David, I appreciate the call.
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RUSH: So we’re supposed to believe a guy who can’t tell the truth about Obamacare and can’t build a website, we’re supposed to believe a guy who preaches doom and gloom and Armageddon over the debt ceiling. Why would we believe that Obama would abide by the debt limit anyway? He’s got no problem changing or ignoring any other law when it suits him, even his own Obamacare. And he’s happy to ignore immigration law. For 25 years I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to persuade people what people like Obama are doing. I mean, it’s just flat-out insulting, it’s mean, none of it’s true. It’s arrogant. It’s got every characteristic that I find really offensive and repulsive. Every one of ’em are encapsulated or included in this.
But it’s the flat-out misrepresentation of the debt limit and the inability to pay the debt if we don’t raise it that gets me. It’s just flat-out false what he’s telling people. He continues to use examples of people buying a mortgage (imitating Obama), “What if you want to buy a house and the people selling it didn’t have a title? Why, you wouldn’t trust that much, would you?” What in the world is he talking about? So all these people have here is to call Republicans bomb throwers, arsonists, hostage takers. Grab sound bite 27. This is basically Obama saying Armageddon if he doesn’t get his way.
OBAMA: A decision to actually go through with it, to actually permit default, according to many CEOs and economists, would be — and I’m quoting here — insane, catastrophic, chaos. These are some of the more polite words. Warren Buffett likened default to a nuclear bomb, a weapon too horrible to use. It would disrupt markets. It would undermine the world’s confidence in America as the bedrock of the global economy.
RUSH: If anybody’s undermining confidence in America, it’s him, in places like Syria and any number of other things, but there’s no default. Financially there’s no reason for default. We got plenty of money, whether we raise the debt limit or not, $225 billion a month comes in. We owe $18 billion. There’s no question of default. It would not happen. Anyway, he just said, “Let’s just get the House, let’s call a vote, let’s just call a vote and be done with this,” ’cause he believes what he reads or is told that there are 20 Republicans in the House that are willing to walk away from this shutdown right now and end this, and there aren’t.
There are not 20 Republicans willing to break away in the House. It’s been a bogus story all day long, and why aren’t there? I’ll tell you. There are a lot of people in Congress who are fighting for your freedom every day against the odds and against this administration, and they will tell you that their offices have been getting a lot of your calls, eight to one in favor of standing by the Republicans in the Congress, standing up to defund Obamacare and keep going on the shutdown. They’re being inundated with support phone calls. And that’s because you are taking the time to let them hear from you.
It’s okay to stand by your principles. You actually feel pretty good doing that. It’s more than okay. It’s the right thing to do. Letting Congress know what’s being discussed at the grassroots level is important, particularly members of Congress who are just exposed to nothing other than the inside-the-Beltway media narrative every day. One of the ways that you can get involved here, find out how you can be part of this if you want to, our friends at FreedomWorks have a website that will direct you to wherever you need to go if you want to try to be heard in this.
The website’s FreedomWorksforMe.com, and that’s how you find out where to go, find out people who are like you, find out what’s necessary to make your voice heard, because, as I say, the phone calls coming in to Republicans are eight to one in favor of what they’re doing. Try that website, FreedomWorksforMe.com, help you stay in touch with your elected officials. This is the week to do it, obviously, the pressure is mounting on the Regime.
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RUSH: The purpose of this press conference was for Obama to repeat two words for one hour: “ransom” and “hostage” and attach them to the Republicans. That’s the only reason for this thing.
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